This invention generally relates to a seal making device and more particularly to a seal making device, by which a person other than an expert and a professional can make a desired seal easily. In the instant specification, the term "seal making device" should be construed as including a relief or intaglio figure plate making device for making a plate, one or both of the front and back sides of which are engraved with relief or intaglio figures or patterns.
Seals in a broad sense, which include a seal engraved with a person's surname or full name, a larger stamp engraved with a mark indicating an office to which individuals belong and a signet, are usually made by experts or professionals. Further, no matter whether such seals are hand-made or machine-made, each of them is usually made by selectively incising a part of the surface of one end of a cylindrical or plate-like body.
Incidentally, a seal is sometimes made by forming, for example, a mold of a resin, on a surface of which is engraved with a relief or intaglio figure projecting or hollowing in inverse relation to the unevenness of the intaglio or relief figure engraved on a surface of the seal, and thereafter injecting a fluid material such as rubber into the mold and then solidifying the fluid material to form an engraved member having substantially the same unevenness as such an intaglio figure.
However, there are many kinds of seals which corporations and individuals wish to have. For instance, a seal indicating an addressee to which letters are frequently mailed, a stamp indicating a title of account, and a seal which is given to a new employee, are often required by them. In case of requesting an expert or a professional to make such a seal, stamp or badge, money matters and the term of making a seal or the like sometimes come into problem.
Further, recently, relief or intaglio figures are sometimes formed on the surfaces of, for example, a doorplate mounted on a door of a person's private room, a plate put up at an entrance of a building and a decoration worn on a person's chest, similarly as in the aforesaid cases of the seals or the like. In such cases, similar matters and problems often occur.
Therefore, there is a demand for a person other than an expert and a professional to make a desired seal or the like easily. Previously, a seal making device (strictly speaking, a seal making kit), by which a person other than an expert and a professional can make a seal, has been on the market.
This conventional seal making device (not shown) employs a film of the ultraviolet sensitive type, an ultraviolet irradiating unit, a planar ultraviolet setting resin member and a stock. Further, a seal is made by using this conventional seal making device as will be described later. Incidentally, the ultraviolet irradiating unit comprises a casing in which an ultraviolet fluorescent lamp is provided, a timer by which a user sets a time to light the ultraviolet lamp, a transparent plate mounted on the top surface of the casing and transmitting ultraviolet light, and an openable lid for preventing the transmitted ultraviolet light from coming out of the transparent plate. Furthermore, the ultraviolet setting resin member comprises a base layer, which is not sensitive to ultraviolet light, and an ultraviolet setting resin layer. Incidentally, the base layer is thinner than the ultraviolet setting resin layer.
In the case of making a seal by using this conventional seal making device, first, characters or patterns (hereunder referred to as an imprint figure), which should be transferred onto paper if the seal is completed and the completed seal is impressed thereon, are drafted on ultraviolet transmittable paper such as tracing paper and thus an original picture of the imprint figure is drawn up.
Thereafter, the original picture and the film of the ultraviolet sensitive type are piled up on the transparent plate of the ultraviolet irradiating unit. Then, the lid is closed. Further, a time for irradiating ultraviolet light is set according to the quality of paper, on which the original picture is drafted, by using the timer. Subsequently, ultraviolet light is irradiated from the ultraviolet lamp onto the film for the set time. The film exposed in this manner is then washed a predetermined liquid (in the case of the device being on the market, this liquid is water) so as to obtain a negative film on which the imprint figure is reversed. Namely, on this negative film, the dark tone portions of the imprint figure appear transparent to ultraviolet light and the remaining portions thereof appear brown (namely, the color obtained as the result of ultraviolet absorption).
Next, this negative film and the ultraviolet setting resin member are piled up on the transparent plate of the ultraviolet irradiating unit. Then, the lid is closed and ultraviolet light is irradiated from the ultraviolet lamp onto the film for a predetermined time. This results in that portions (corresponding to the dark tone portions of the imprint figure), on which the ultraviolet light is irradiated, of the ultraviolet setting resin member are hardened. In contrast, the remaining portions of the ultraviolet setting resin member do not become hard. Upon completion of such a setting processing, the ultraviolet setting resin member is washed by the predetermined liquid (in the case of the device being on the market, this liquid is water) to remove the portions thereof, which do not become hard. Thereby, the engraved member, in which the hardened portions (corresponding to the imprint figure) of the ultraviolet setting resin layer project from the base layers of the remaining portions of the ultraviolet setting resin member, is completed. Subsequently, the fixation of the engraved member completed in this way is performed by further irradiating ultraviolet light thereon.
Then, this engraved member is fitted to the stock. Thus the seal is completed.
This conventional seal making device, however, has drawbacks in that a maker should perform a very large number of operations which include the operation of making an original picture and thus the efficiency is low and the time required for making a seal is long.
These drawbacks are mainly due to the fact that although information on an imprint figure is included in an original picture, this information can not be utilized directly for making the engraved member, namely, a negative film should be made as an intermediate product.
Further, excepting a case that an original picture is made by handwriting an imprint figure intentionally, when the original picture is made by using a predetermined typestyle or typeface, a maker comes to use what is called a word processor or the like. Moreover, it becomes necessary to copy the imprint figure made by the word processor onto ultraviolet transmittable paper by using an electronic copying machine or the like. Thus, the operation of making an original picture requires much time and trouble.
Additionally, it is also necessary to set an ultraviolet irradiating time according to the thickness of ultraviolet transmittible paper and the dark tone of a draft of the original picture. This operation requires skill to some extent.
The present invention is accomplished in the light of the aforesaid problems of the conventional seal making device. It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide a seal making device by which a person other than a specialist in making a seal can make a desired seal easily in a short time.